TSE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTERNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL 4, NO.2, FEBRUARY 198, An Exact Integration 9 Procedure for Vector Potentials of Thin Circular Loop Antennas Douglas H. Wemer, Abstract—A direct integration procedure for farzone vector potentials of thin circular lop antennas hasbeen Known for many Year: This method in general inthe sense tht I leds to sple Integrals which have closed frm solutions for most commonly ‘sumed lop curent distributions. However, comparable inte {ration technique has not been svalable for evaluating the more implicated near-zone vector pote. This paper inroduces ‘teystematie approach for the exact integration of general near- done vector potentials assocated with current-carrying cccalar Toop antennas, A particular example i considered where ths nem integration technigue fs uped to find exact soltbns tothe ‘ctor potential and electromagnet eld integrals fr loops with 1 Fourlreosineserls expansion ofthe current The observation Uniform and corinusokdal current loop. Two equivalent forms of exact series expansions are derived forthe uniform current vector potential and fel integrals. 1 shown thatthe familiar small Toop approximations, a well as the classical far-field expressions, ‘may be obtained as limiting cases ofthe more general exact series representations for the uniform current loop obtained in this paper. Convenient asymptotic far-field expansions are derived for the loop with cosinusoldal current distribution. Finally, the far-field analysis for the cosinusoidal loop is generalized t0 loops having an arbitrary current represented by a Fourier cosine serles. 1. Brropucrion HHE radiation characteristics of loop antennas has been ‘an area of interest to researchers for many years. This is evidenced by the fact that there exists a substantial body of literature devoted to the subject. There are several references ‘which contain an excellent review of esearch relating to loop antennas, Included among these references are King etal. (J ‘alanis [2], and Smith (3). This paper will focus on the circular Joop antenna, which is one of the most popular configurations for loop antennas. Many of the papers which have been published are strictly cconcemed with the development of far-field expressions for circular loop antennas with various dimensions and assumed ‘current distributions. The far-field intensities fora circular loop ccarying uniform curteat have been calculated by Foster [4] for loops of any size relative to the wavelength, Expressions are ‘obtained in (5] for the distant field intensity in the plane and ‘on the axis of a thin circular loop. This analysis is restricted to circular loops having circumference equal to an integral ‘number of wavelengths with an assumed sinusoidal current distribution. Approximate far-field formulas have been derived Manuscript eeived May 1, 1995, ‘The ater is with The Potnsyvania State Univers, Apple’ Resexch Lateratry, State Colles, PA T6804 USA, Publis em Heifer $ 018-925X(9001 1963. Senior Member, IEEE by Glinski (6 fr the circular loop antenna with an assumed current distibution of the hyperbolic cosine form. These formulas are valid for ratios of loop perimeter to wavelength on the order of 0.5 or less. This restcton was later removed by Lindsay (7), who obtsined exact far-field representations hich are valid for hyperbolic cosine curent loops of al sizes Starting with the fist five terms of a Fourier cosine series representation ofthe Toop cureat, Rao [8 derived expressions for the associated far-field components. This technique is, accurate for circular loops with circumferences of up (0 two and one-half wavelengths, Stl another treatment involves the derivation ofthe far zone eletrcfeld intensity components for a circular loop with a waveling-wave current distribution ‘hich undergoes an arbitrary phase change over one complete revolution (9) Papers dealing with the derivation of near-field expressions for current-carrying circular loop antennas are much les ‘common than those which only consider the far-field. This, scarcity of relevant literature on the subject of near-‘felds tay be atibutd to the fat that inthe near region of a Toop antenna, more complex forms ofthe vector potential nd corresponding fild integrals result which have proven to be extremely dificult to evaluate analytically. As a consequence ‘of this, analytical expressions for these near zone integrals have only bee found forthe simplest case of «uniform current circular Loop {10} ‘Because of the ack of available techniques for evaluating vector potential integrals directly for regions near the loop, an allerative approach is sometimes used in which the loop fields are expressed in terms of two scalar potentials, known a the elecrie and magnetic Debye potentials [11]. These Potentials are solution ofthe homogeneous scalar Helmholtz ‘wave equation in spherical coordinates which involve spherical, Bessel funtions and spherical harmonics. This approach is usually used for the soltion of boundary value problems in spherical coordinates, however, it may also be suocessfully applied to the analysis of sources with given current disti- butions, For example, Smythe [12] employs this method to determine near-field expression fora uniform curent circular Joop. Other applications of this technique which have been reported include the analysis of circular Toop antennss with spherical insolation (1, Sections 10.1-10.4,[13]-[14], as well 48 spherical cores {1, Sections 10.5, {15116 A izectitegraton procedure fo fr-20ne vector potentials cof thin cicular loop antennas has heen developed in (171 ‘This method is general since i leads to simple integrals which have closed-form solutions for most loop curent distributions. However, a comparable integration technique tas not been on1s-526xI54805.00 © 1996 IEEE1s [BBE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, OL. st NO. 1, FEBRUARY 196 * > Fig. 1. Cicula loop sateons geometry available for evaluating the more complicated near-zone vector ‘potentials. The purpose ofthis paper isto introduce an exact in- tegration methodology which may be used to directly evaluate vector potential integrals in the near region of circular loops. ‘This integration procedure is very general and applicable to loops with a wide variety of dimensions and commonly assumed current distributions. The theoretical foundation of this new integration technique is developed, in Section 1, for an arbitrary loop current. Application of this theory 10 Toops having a pentcular current distribution represented by 1 Fourier cosine series is discussed in Section III, where ‘exact solutions to the vector potential integrals aro derived. Finally, exact expansions for the uniform and cosinusoidal current loop vector poteatials are obtained in Section IV. This is accomplished by treating these special cases as degenerste forms of the Fourier cosine series current vector potentials ‘considered in Section I TL. TasonsticaL. DEVELOPMENT ‘The geometry for the circular loop antenna of radius a is depicted in Fig. 1. The source point and field point are designated by the spherical coordinates (r! = a, 6! = 90°, #) and (r, 8, ), respectively. Hence, the distance from the source point on the loop to the field point at some arbitrary location in space is R= JRF Paria coals o where R= Vee. @ Since the curent is lowing inthe direction around the loop, ics 1(9) then the vector potential may be expressed in the several form [2] A0,8) = Aulrs0,0)F + Aalrs0,6)8 + Agr 8.d)d eo (0,9) Ao.0.9) = 32 [TG omg — pressions forthe electric and magnetic fs of te circular Toop may be derived fom is vector peal by making use of the relationships Balvxd o z va alr Axel. ® ‘A systematic approach for evaluating the vector potential integrals defined in (4)-(6) has not been available. In this section, however, a general method will be preseated for obiaining exact solutions to potential integrals of this ‘ype. ‘The resulting series expansions are general inthe sense that they are expressed in tems of simple integrals involving the loop current 7(@) which, for many cases of practical interes, have closed form solutions, The derivation of these exact representations begins by recognizing that the vector potential integrals (4)-(6) may be expressed in the following way Aleit) = se EMU 80) o Bde AO) = —aprtamB ag M9), 10) An.) = wp EOn8,8) ADWERNER: EXACT INTEGRATION PROCEDURE FOR VECTOR POTENTIALS OF THIN CIRCULAR LOOP ANTENNAS 1 where the integral and) = Fe [Mayes a is common to all three components of the vector potential. Next, the Lommel expansions [18]-120] (af j-mb VE) sin(VEFB) = i Sie mal (ay may be used to obtain a series representation forthe term eR, which appears in the integrand of (12), by letting, = (BR) and y = ~25%arsind cos(d ~ 6). Substituting these variable changes for and y into (13) and (14) yields conor = $o\Harsin 8) cos See ind)" cos™(8 ~ 6) n-1(BR) sin( a ‘Gaye a6) Where jm—1 and ym—1 aré spherical Bessel functions of the first and second kind, respectively, of order m~1. Combining (15) and (16) using Euler’ identity results in an expression for "given by ow ir (Bar sin 8)" cos” ( ~ 6) KD (BR) ae a7) where 2, ae spherical Hankel functions of the second kind of order m — 1. Substituting the series (17) into (12) and integrating term by term lads to 8(0.8,4) = GoeP* + Gnd) (Bar sin 6)” hie! (AR) ~ Gomer Pay) where ee oom 5 [neh as) ad Gn) = 5 ff * 1g oos™(6- odd. 20) Because the current around the loop i periodic, that is 1(@' + 2x) = 1(@), the integral 20) may be expressed in the convenient form Gnld)= ge [Hor dome gts. aD [An exact representation for 9 may be obtained from (18), provided closed form solutions ofthe integrals (19) and (21) exist for a particular current distribution, Forunately, itis posible to evaluate these interals analytically forthe majority ‘of commonly assumed current distributions. Once an exact representation for a specific & has been found, then itis a straightforward procedure to determine exact expressions for the vector potential components A,, Ag, and Ag by substi luting the series expansion for & into (9), (10), and (11), respectively, and performing the necessary differentiation. IL, EXAMPLE: FOURIER EXPANSION OF LOOP CURRENT. A. Exact Vetor Potential Expressions ‘The procedure introduced in Section Il willbe followed in this section to derive exact expressions for the vector potential and electromagnetic fields corresponding. to loops having, an axbitrary current distribution represented by a Fourier ‘decomposition. The representation for the loop current which will be considered is given by the following Fourier cosine (8) = YJ, c08(n9). 2 ‘This form of the current distribution is very general and may bbe applied to the analysis ofthe radiation characteristics of Toop antennas for a wide variety of circumstances (1), [21] (23). ‘As discussed in the previous section, the fist step towand ‘obtaining exact expressions forthe three components of the \ector potential is to find solutions to the integrals (19) and (21). This may be accomplished by first substituting the expression for the current distribution (22) into (19) which then yields Go=h @3) ‘We next substitute (22) into (21) which results in Gil A) = Yo Inf Amn c08(014) — Bron sin(nd)} (24) where it may be shown using (23) that don = ig [Frm 9 conn! + _ cos” #! cos(nd’)dg! 0 omen ={ Aly), m2>nandm—n=2k — @5) rm mand mn = 2k41 and that Df Ban = 3 ii cos” 9 sing") 6) ‘The fact that the coefficients Byyy = 0 for all values of m and 1 suggests that (24) simplifies (0 Y Anka cosine) Gnd) = en